Trump and Kushner's Statements and the Resurrection of the Displacement Specter

The statement by U.S. President Donald Trump, in which he promised the Palestinians in Gaza decent housing in the region, pointing out that Egypt and Jordan have plenty of land, comes despite his 21-point plan and the Sharm El-Sheikh summit. It is a return or rather evidence that his sick dreams about a "Gaza Riviera," which were translated in the "Kushner Plan," have not left the area, and such ideas still pose a threat to the people of Gaza, the Palestinian people, and the countries in the region as well.

Trump's statement coincides with remarks from his son-in-law Kushner during a press conference held in Kiryat Gat, where he stated that the reconstruction of Gaza will be limited only to areas controlled by Israel and will not include areas still under the control of Hamas. He added that the process will proceed according to "carefully studied" plans, and that there are several work tracks from last year that are being updated, apparently referring to a plan he had presented on this matter during a lecture at Harvard University, where he discussed the "transfer" of Gaza's population and rehabilitating it as an investment area, indicating that these tracks will be presented to President Trump and the "Peace Council" for recommendations on what to build and the phased implementation mechanism.

These American statements are not incidental or fleeting; rather, they reflect an insistence on implementing the colonial investment scheme in Gaza, this time through the reconstruction process that will occur under the authority of the Israeli occupation army and exclusively in the areas it controls. In this sense, the U.S. and Israel are not merely using reconstruction as a weapon to undermine Hamas' control and dismantle its military and administrative structures but also as a means to pass their colonial investment and settlement projects in Gaza, which we believed had dissipated.

According to Trump's plan regarding Gaza, he holds extensive powers as the overall president of what is called the Peace Council, making his son-in-law Kushner an "executive governor," for lack of a better term. Furthermore, the Israeli army is still the actual controller of the areas where reconstruction will take place, so there are no obstacles to implementing the American-Israeli displacement plan, except for the continued coherence of the Egyptian and Jordanian positions that refuse to accept Palestinian displaced persons on their lands.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to engineer the political, administrative, and security situation in the Gaza Strip, efforts are underway to establish something akin to an international "mandate authority" to manage the sector, obtaining a resolution from the Security Council to act as a transitional body responsible for managing civil and humanitarian affairs, reconstruction, and securing basic services such as water and electricity, as well as preparing for the post-Hamas phase at political and security levels.

In the same context, a U.S. military command has been established in Kiryat Gat in the Negev, headed by an American general, to monitor the Gaza Strip and implement the second phase of the ceasefire. This command is described as the heart of the American operation in Gaza and Israel and includes 200 officers and soldiers, most of whom are American.

This command also works on monitoring and controlling what happens in the Gaza Strip and implementing the phases of the agreement, in addition to overseeing reconstruction and coordinating between the armies that will send soldiers to Gaza. Estimates suggest that these forces will include hundreds of Egyptian, Turkish, Indonesian, and other soldiers, while the command will include an Israeli general along with an American-Israeli businessman.

Israel seeks to neutralize Turkish participation in the international forces under various pretexts to weaken the role of entities supportive of and advocating for Hamas and the Palestinian right, allowing its American partners to implement their plans concerning tightening control over the sector and executing displacement, investment, and settlement projects.